Judge: Contents of cellphone of former Seaman teacher may be used as evidence in child porn case

The contents of former Seaman High School teacher and coach Jeffrey Pierce's cellphone may be used as evidence in the child pornography case against him, a federal judge ruled this week.

U.S. District Judge Toby Crouse on Monday denied a motion filed by an attorney representing Pierce, who sought to suppress evidence investigators obtained from that cellphone.

The motion had been filed Feb. 1 contending the FBI violated Pierce's rights by illegally forcing him to provide the passcode it used to unlock his cellphones.

"First, the Government did not improperly compel Pierce to testify against himself," Crouse said in the written ruling. "Second, the Government has sufficiently established that Pierce’s wife, Keelin (Pierce), independently, voluntarily, and contemporaneously provided Pierce’s passcode."

Prosecutors met their burden of proving that Jeffrey Pierce provided his passcode voluntarily and not as the product of unlawful tactics, Crouse wrote.

Moreover, prosecutors showed that Keelin Pierce provided the passcode before Jeffrey Pierce did, he wrote.

"In other words, agents would still have gained access to Pierce’s phone in real time and would have been able to conduct the same, or sufficiently similar, questioning of Pierce that elicited the inculpatory statements at issue."

Prosecutors allege Pierce, 41, posed as a teenaged girl on various social media platforms to acquire explicit photos from other teenagers.

Pierce taught ninth-grade social studies and was an assistant basketball coach at Seaman High School. He was fired by the Seaman USD 345 Board of Education after he was arrested in September 2020.

Pierce faces federal charges of nine counts of production of child pornography and one count each of coercion and enticement, possession of a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and distribution of a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Judge: Seaman teacher's cellphone contents may be used against him